What's up, guys? After I uploaded the video of myself learning the one-arm pull-up,
I noticed that a lot of people were interested in the one-arm chin-up, and a lot of people
commented on the one-arm chin-up and the one-arm pull-up interchangeably as if they were the same
thing. Coincidentally, I received a pair of gymnastics rings from Duonamic, so naturally
I decided to learn the one-arm chin-up and see how different it is from the one-arm pull-up. You
might wonder since I can do the one-arm pull-up, why didn't I get the one-arm chin-up for free?
Look, man, the one-arm chin-up could be free only if I had learned the one-arm pull-up through brute
force and poor technique. I learned the one-arm pull-up with optimal technique and with just
enough strength. The technique of the one-arm chin-up is slightly different and the strength
requirement is also slightly different; therefore, it's not free. If you love watching mainstream
calisthenics type of one-arm chin-up tutorial videos, which tell you to do this exercise
and do that exercise and eventually you will become strong enough to overcome poor technique,
then this video won't be for you. In this video, I will share the techniques and insights I learned
throughout my one-arm chin-up journey that no one has ever talked about. On day 1, I tried applying
the same key technique I learned from the one-arm pull-up, which is engaging the lats and going up
with a c-shape detour. However, I realized two new problems. First, my body really wanted to
spin inward during the first half of the movement, and this caused intense pressure on my shoulders.
Second, I was not able to start with a complete dead hang due to the pull-up bar not being high
enough, so I started with a semi L-sit, and it felt a lot harder to get out of the dead hang
because of this. My first reaction to the spinning problem was to try to solve it by changing the
angles of my elbows, but my body still spun around no matter how I positioned my elbows. I thought
to myself: "Maybe I am just not strong enough." After all, I was able to power through these two
new problems if I used the band to reduce load. I trained and trained and trained. Ten days passed,
and I wasn't making a lot of progress. I knew something had to be wrong. I decided to sit
down and think hard, and I figured it out. Due to the unique structure of the ring, as long as the
force generated on the left side of the centroid is different from the force generated on the right
side of the centroid, there's going to be torque that causes either the ring or the body to spin.
When I perform the one-arm pull-up on a bar, I have a mixed grip that is somewhere between a
pronated grip and a neutral grip. In addition to pulling down, my forearms are also fully engaged
by applying counterclockwise torque with the aim of turning my grip into a supinated grip,
but obviously my grip still stays the same since the bar doesn't spin. This allows me to generate
a lot more force on the way up. However, when I try the same thing on the rings, the torque
causes me to spin, and if I disengage my forearms a bit to avoid generating torque when pulling down,
the force is far from enough for me to go up. The most natural way to pull down without any torque
is actually the three major grips, pronated grip, neutral grip, and supinated grip. The pronated
grip is the best option since it best activates the lats, which we have to mainly rely on to get
out of the dead hang. The biggest problem with the pronated grip is that the bicep activation is the
worst; therefore, it makes the second half of the movement a lot more difficult. That's why I do a
mixed grip during the one-arm pull-up on the bar to get the best tradeoff between lat activation
and bicep activation. However, since the ring actually spins, I can start with a pronated grip
during the first half of the movement for best lat activation, and then spin the ring to a supinated
grip during the second half of the movement for best bicep activation. To recap, during the first
half of the movement, for the one-arm pull-up on the bar, you rely on good lat activation and good
forearm activation. As for the one-arm chin-up on the ring, you rely on very good lat activation.
During the second half of the movement, for the one-arm pull-up on the bar, you rely on good bicep
activation and good forearm activation. As for the one-arm chin-up, you rely on very good bicep
activation. Since I had the first new problem thought through, it was time to tackle the second
new problem. Coincidently, I came across a great video from Simonster Strength, titled "Why The
L-sit Makes Pull-ups Harder." A quick summary is that you have to protract your scapula in order to
counterbalance the legs that are raised to the front, whereas in a normal dead hang position,
the scapula is neutral. It is a lot more difficult to activate the lats from a protracted scapula.
Since I knew why starting with an L-sit made things more difficult now, I was able to figure
that out instead of starting with a semi L-sit. I could simply start with my legs folded towards
my back instead. In this position, I could start with a neutral scapula, maybe even with a slight
retraction, which made getting out of a dead hang so much easier. With the two new problems unique
to the one-arm chin-up on the rings solved, I was able to make significant progress right away,
but I wasn't able to do the one-arm chin-up successfully right away because my biceps kept
running out of gas during the second half of the movement. I trained and trained and trained. My
biceps were getting a tiny bit stronger session after session. Finally, on day 28, this happened.
Yes, alright! For the calisthenics perfectionists out there, I am fully aware that my chin barely
made it over the ring. I gave it one more try when I was preparing for this video and the result was
similar. Could I have trained one more month to make my bicep even stronger, so there would be a
larger gap between my chin and the ring? Yeah, for sure, but chin over ring without kipping
is a valid rep in my book, and I am sure a lot of people who are pursuing the one-arm chin-up
would rather see this video today than 1 month later. Lastly, so many people reached out to me
for help after watching my one-arm pull-up video. I want to answer a few common recurring questions.
First, a lot of people don't seem to understand what engaging the lats means. Leaning back is
a necessary condition for engaging the lats, but not the other way around. Here is a cue for you to
try. Next time when you do normal pull-ups, flex and push the muscles that are in the lower back
and right on top of the hip bone. My experience is if these muscles are engaged, chances are pretty
high that your entire posterior chain will be engaged and thus your lats will be fully engaged.
Second, if you can't do at least 70% of extra body weight pull-up, you really shouldn't be thinking
about training the one-arm pull-up. So many people with 30%~50% of extra body weight pull-ups want to
jump into training the one-arm pull-up right away. This is not reasonable. Here is a quick
math to show why that is. If your weighted pull-up is 50% of extra body weight, that means the left
side of your body pulls 75% of body weight, and so does your right side. That also means when you
do the one-arm pull-up, the other side of the body needs to somehow contribute to pulling 25% of body
weight. When you do the one-arm pull-up, the other side of your lats, core, and chest are engaged,
but intuitively everyone should agree with me that no way those muscles can contribute to 25%
of the pulls. So definitely be patient and train your weighted pull-up to 70%
of extra body weight first before going for the one-arm pull-up. Thanks for watching. Make sure
to like, subscribe, and check out my website, geekclimber.com. See you in the next video.